RenewableUK welcomes Welsh Government’s support for return of onshore wind

RenewableUK is highlighting a call by the Welsh Government and a number of Welsh energy and environmental organisations, including RenewableUK Cymru, for the UK Government to allow the development of new onshore wind projects in Wales. Onshore wind developers are not permitted to compete for contracts to generate electricity anywhere in the UK. The Governments of both Wales and Scotland have energy policies which support investment in onshore wind as part of a strategy to boost businesses and keep energy bills low. The Welsh Government is today calling on the Westminster Government to enable the most affordable energy technologies, such as onshore wind and solar, to form the majority of Wales’s future energy supply.

The Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths, said: “We believe that lowest cost technologies, such as onshore wind and solar, present the best opportunities to manage the costs of generation to energy bills. They also offer Welsh businesses and our rural economy the opportunity to be more resilient and self-sufficient in a future outside the EU. A policy framework which enables the most affordable projects to continue to form the bulk of energy supply is fundamentally important to delivering our decarbonisation and prosperity goals”.

Welcoming the statement, RenewableUK’s Executive Director Emma Pinchbeck said: “Onshore wind is cheap power, so all UK consumers would benefit from new sites. The Welsh Cabinet Secretary’s statement also highlights that onshore wind sites in Wales are an opportunity to boost Welsh industry and provide reliable energy to rural economies.

The UK Government has said that it is considering how to bring forward onshore wind in areas of the UK that want it. With both Welsh and Scottish Governments now publicly calling on Westminster to help them develop new projects, let’s hope that a solution can be found.

The UK Government Minister for Climate Change and Industry Claire Perry told a Select Committee hearing on the Clean Growth Strategy in Westminster yesterday that “I think onshore wind is absolutely part of the future”. She also stated: “I am working on ways with the team to see how we might bring forward onshore wind, particularly for areas of the UK that want to deploy it because I agree it’s an important part of the mix.”

RenewableUK is the trade and professional body for the wind, wave and tidal energy industries. Formed in 1978, and with more than 400 corporate members.RenewableUK is the country’s leading renewable energy trade association.

The statement by the Welsh government and a number of Welsh energy and environmental organisations, including RenewableUK Cymru, can be found here.